Pequot news. Coaching hires. Stuff

Lawdy, do we miss football. Everyone here at Polecat HQ is jonesing like depraved freaks, counting down the days until our Canadian friends kick off their 2013 CFL season. That'll get us through until our country's 100-yard football begins.

We dare say that Avon and Gilbert/Northwestern Regional made out well in this shift for a few reasons. The West has one less consistent contender than the other two divisions. Granby and Lewis Mills are both young programs. Nonnewaug has won three games over its last five seasons.

The North has Cromwell, E/S and C/W/T, which have all made states in either of the last two seasons. Cromwell has also played in three state finals and won once.

The South looks like the toughest division. The Sassacus had been the tougher of the Pequot's two divisions, and most of those teams are in the new South.

Hyde, North Branford and VR/OL all took turns winning the Sassacus over the previous five seasons. Coginchaug and Haddam-Killingworth gave that trio trouble from time-to-time, too.

The return of divisional crossovers will (almost) balance everything out, though. Avon and G/NW will both play Cromwell, E/S, North Branford and VR/OL.

North Branford should have the toughest schedule next season if past success is any indicator. It has to deal with its South foes, in addition to crossovers against Avon, C/W/T, E/S, Cromwell and G/NW.

Pretty sure that H/W has the longest road trip — it opens the season at Old Saybrook/Westbrook. That's a one hour and 46 minute trip by car. A bus ride might take over two hours. Too bad that wormholes haven't been found in our realm as they'd help the Mountaineers cut down on travel.

We'd love to post a copy of the schedule, but we can't figure out how with this stupid gizmo. In the meantime, you can check it out at Ellington's twitter feed while we call technical support

■ ■ ■ ■

Now, onto the coaching portion of our show.

There were 16 vacancies when we last posted. That number has dwindled a smidge.

Gordon had been Central's defensive coordinator. We hope he follows the lead of former head coach Dave Cadelina and runs DOOM whenever possible.

Avon hired Jim Caouette, as first tweeted by Kyle Brennan of the NVL Blog, Waterbury Republican-American, and Griff's Chicken Shack. Gerry deSimas of the Collinsville Press wrote up a little something about Caouette, too.

Ellington/Somers tweeted Thursday that it elevated assistant Sean Byrne to head coach.